MH question again sooo tired

[calvindo]

well... guess you have to take my word for it... for $359, you can get mh. there are like 6 lfs in my area. I never buy from them.... they dont offer good deals like how internet fish stores offers. So far, i've spend roughly 3k on my set up. The same set up will cost me 5k, if i purchase from a lfs. take this site for instance, most of the stuff is very reasonable priced. you can also find some great deals on ----.

 

[trickle25]

ok i just ordered a cool touch dual 175w with 10000k ushio bulbs...now i was looking at my canopy and theres only about 5in from the top to the top of the canopy ..so the bulbs would actually be about an inch off the top of the aquarium....this needs to be highter right like 7 inches ? oh are most stands and canopys that are premade made out of oak...? im tryin to figure out what mine is made out of...oh and would the Mh be place higher than the vhos or at the same hight

 

[calvindo]

Originally posted by trickle25
ok i just ordered a cool touch dual 175w with 10000k ushio bulbs...now i was looking at my canopy and theres only about 5in from the top to the top of the canopy ..so the bulbs would actually be about an inch off the top of the aquarium....this needs to be highter right like 7 inches ? oh are most stands and canopys that are premade made out of oak...? im tryin to figure out what mine is made out of...oh and would the Mh be place higher than the vhos or at the same hight

Hey, thats the same company i bought mine from.... you'll be happy with it!

 

[bdhough]

Trickle: yeah you are going to have to remedy that somehow. Either go canopyless and stick the light on some legs above the water or buy a new canopy. I think the typical all glass canopies are oak yes....

 

[trickle25]

oh hey i spend all day and modified and added a second level kinda to the canopy so the mh is gonna be about 5-6 in above the water....and im gonna position 2 fans at the bulb so it dosnt get too hot.....i cant wait to get em

 

[trickle25]

oh i forgot to ask...when i start with the MH how long should i leave them on. the first week and how should i increse the time ?

 

[bdhough]

if you want to be safe start them at and hour a day. Are you going to run all 4 vho's? Run them the same amount you have now. Start the halides an hour or so after the vho's come on. Then increase the halides by 30 minutes every 5-7 days based on the reaction of your corals. Noting if they are expanding poorly, look bad, etc etc.... Which may be light shock. You probalby won't run into that but thats what i would do. Work the halides up to about 6-8 hours in a day with the vho's matching a natural day. So run the lights a total of 10 hours with the halides in the middle. Make sense?

 

[trickle25]

cool thanks...i would be so screwed without you guys...i was just gonna leave em on from morn to night just like the vhos..well im prob gonna run all 4 vhos...just depending how bright they all are toughter....if its way to bright to look at ill take the 2 sun vhos out....but i think i get it start off at an hour and increase 30min every 5 days or so ...depending how corals react ...wow only 30min so this is gonna be a long process gettin them used to the halide

 

[calvindo]

i have both my vho's on from 5pm-12am and my mh from 6pm-11pm.

 

[spsfreak100]

cant 2 much light be bad for corals ?
Yes, but it would take a lot of intensity to reach that point. As long as you provide the proper carbon dioxide, calcium, pH and alkalinity, there's really no such thing as "too much" lighting. Unless you're planning on purchasing multiple 1000wt, 3000wt, or 6000wt halides, you shouldn't worry about having too much lighting. I'm running 2x 400wt Ushio's and 2x 65wt PC's over my 80 gallon. When I get the money, I'm planning on adding in a 400wt Radium in the center of the tank, to make a total of 1200wts of halides and 130wts of Power compacts on an 80 gallon.
ya i thought dual 250w would be way 2 much
I wouldn't say that. There's people on this board running 2x 250wt halides along with 2-4 110wt URI VHO's over their 55 gallon tanks. That is not too much for a 60 gallon tank.
just wonderin how many fans you have on the hood ? and do they always run...MH are always hot right ?
I have 2x 4" Icecap fans in my hood, which completely takes care of the heating problems. And as others have said, halides are always hot while they're running.
and for coarls im just gonna keep soft corals
The dual 250wt setup should be fine for soft corals. Metal halides would be cheaper in the long run.
Watt for watt, halides emit the same amount of heat as flourecent lighting does. The only source of lighting from the halides come from a very small surface area. Since the heat is consentrated into such a small area, it releases more heat around that area. Unlike halides, the flourecent lighting source and heat is released through the whole bulb rather than in a small area.
Watt for watt, halides have the same evaporation rate as flourecent lighting. Watt for watt, they also cost the same to run.
Halides, in my opinion, are much more efficiant than Power compacts, VHO's, and even T-5 lighting. Halides only need to be replaced every 12-14 months (with the exception of a few 20,000k Bulbs that are overdrived by a PFO HQI ballast).
you can actually see the water trickle across your tank with mh.
Every time you see a streak of water through your tank, it magnifies the halides around 7x, meaning for the split second, the corals are receiving around 7 times more than than they normally would. Some say this can be benificial to some corals.
oh i forgot to ask...when i start with the MH how long should i leave them on. the first week and how should i increse the time ?
Do you have corals already in the tank?
Graham
PS. Is this Surferdude141?

 

[trickle25]

hey wow that was very helpfull... and ya ive got about 8 rocks with mushrooms polyps and some otehr things that i dont know what their called...clean up crew and no fish....im actually debation about not gettin fish im so into the corals
oh and this isnt surferdude

 

[bdhough]

Yeah SPSFreak knows his stuff. Nobody listens to me
hehehe j/k.....
Since you have corals you need to start the halides on a short on cycle and work your way up over a couple weeks till you want them on as long as possible. When adding corals to your tank you need to remember the light they are coming from. If they match TYPE wise and WATTAGE wise then you could probably place them any where. If TYPE matches but WATTAGE is going down(you have less wattage) then anywhere is also possible. If TYPE does not match and WATTAGE is going up (i.e. you have better lights) then start the corals at the bottom of your tank in a shady spot and work them up over a couple of weeks. Always remember that or you will light shock a coral.
Make sense?

 

[lesleybird]

If you put all that metal halide light on the 60 gallon tank you would need to spend another three or four hundred on a chiller or you may fry everything from the heat! VHO or power compacts will keep most soft corals. You can even have a brain coral very high up in the tank with most VHO's or power compacts.
Lesley

 

[bdhough]

You can keep a brain under 30 watts of flourescents

 

[spsfreak100]

Originally posted by bdhough
Since you have corals you need to start the halides on a short on cycle and work your way up over a couple weeks till you want them on as long as possible. When adding corals to your tank you need to remember the light they are coming from. If they match TYPE wise and WATTAGE wise then you could probably place them any where. If TYPE matches but WATTAGE is going down(you have less wattage) then anywhere is also possible. If TYPE does not match and WATTAGE is going up (i.e. you have better lights) then start the corals at the bottom of your tank in a shady spot and work them up over a couple of weeks. Always remember that or you will light shock a coral.
I agree, although wattage is only how much power it takes to run a bulb rather than how much intensity that bulb emits. But, I doubt many people here have Lux, PAR and intensity meters to measure the amount of lighting from tank to tank, so wattage and bulb type would have some affect on the coral placement, or as far as aclamating the coral to lighting, goes
You can keep a brain under 30 watts of flourescents
Depends on the species of brain, how far away it is kept from the water surface, what type of flourecent light we're talking about and what you discribe "keep" is (IE:, Survive, Thrive, barley live, etc.)
If you put all that metal halide light on the 60 gallon tank you would need to spend another three or four hundred on a chiller or you may fry everything from the heat! VHO or power compacts will keep most soft corals. You can even have a brain coral very high up in the tank with most VHO's or power compacts.
I wouldn't say you would need to have a chiller. I don't run a chiller on my 80 gallon, and even during the summer or winter (what's the difference in LA? ) the temperature stays at a constant 83-85 degrees F. Although, there's always a chance that a chiller may be needed, although in this case I doubt heat would be much of an issue, as long as proper ventilation is provided.
oh and this isnt surferdude
I apologize about that There was someone else in the LA area who was also setting up a 60 gallon tank.
Take Care,
Graham

 

[bdhough]

He's about 6 inches from the light. And i wish i could show you before and after pics of what he looks like. Basically he was about as white as you can get and "skinless". He now opens up roughly 10x5.... if not bigger daily. I'm worried now about him getting to big for the 12.... Regular flourescents Btw and he's a red/green. A neony green brain probably wouldn't do as well in my tank....

 

[trickle25]

ive already got a chiller so the water should be ok ...i hope the MH will only raise the temp a few degrees....and if i get new corals to make sure that strenght is stronger than mine ill be ok but ifs it weaker to slowlly acclimate it to the light....wow...my heads gonna explode from all this